Download Case StudyFounded in 2006, Brightfield specialized in providing data, intelligence, and consulting services
for extended workforce management. Its mission revolved around using state-of-the-art
technology and practices to help global enterprises build the processes and infrastructures
required to run procure-to-pay programs. Brightfield bowed out of consulting services in 2014
with the advent of its Talent Data Exchange, which is a subscription-based AI service that has
been trained on the transactional data of more than 500 companies with annual spending
ranging from $50 million to more than $3 billion.
Brightfield had made a big investment in Oracle as both a database vendor and hosting
provider. It wanted to reduce licensing costs and move to open-source technology but did not
have the internal experts to do that effectively. Brightfield’s technology team was made up of
only developers who did not have experience or knowledge about infrastructure, AWS, or cloud
management.
Its existing solution was a monolith, the database size was large (over 15TB), and the workload
was highly transactional, which complicated migration planning. Although the code was well
structured, Brightfield couldn’t release features independently. If the company made any
changes, its entire product had to be tested and released, which resulted in errors and
unwanted downtime.
Brightfield contacted IO Connect Services to help it migrate to AWS before its Oracle licenses
needed to be renewed. The team at IO Connect started at that renewal deadline and worked
backwards to ensure its new solution would be completed on time without complications.
Then, the IO Connect team identified the best opportunities to break down the application into
containers during migration, add functionality, and select the appropriate AWS tools to complete
the project. The IO Connect team ran several automated tests and determined what needed to
be done to transform data types to ensure the migration occurred smoothly. Once the migration
was completed, Brightfield was able to consume its database as a service through a managed
service provider (MSP), which eliminated the need for a database administrator.
First and foremost, the migration to AWS was completed on-time, before the Oracle license
renewal deadline, and within budget.
Since the new system uses containers instead of a monolith, Brightfield can now accelerate its
go-to-market time for future releases. Not only does AWS reduce the time it takes to test new
functionality, but overall downtime decreases because the entire service is no longer affected by
individual updates.
By using an MSP to operate and maintain the new solution, Brightfield can build its AWS skills
internally at their own pace and spend more time on data analysis. For example, the company
can save even more money by storing less frequently used data in less expensive storage
containers, bringing it into premium storage only as needed.
As a serverless system, Brightfield can pay as it uses the system instead of a flat licensing fee.
Using an MSP eliminates the cost of hiring a database administrator. Most importantly,
switching to AWS has meant an increase in capabilities for scalability, performance, and fault
tolerance, resulting in a high-quality product for its customer base
